Getting Started With Video Gating

Guide to generating leads with video.

Getting Started With Video Gating

Now that video marketing has been adopted by the enterprise, there has a been a large push by video hosting software companies to create solutions that give marketers the ability to place interactive call-to-actions (CTAs) inside a video player. One of the most popular CTA types is an email request. But there are many other types of CTAs you can use to gate your video content — and gating does not only mean pre-roll (before the video plays) but it can also mean mid-roll (anywhere in the center of the video). In this short post, I will give an intro on video gating and provide a few resources you can take with you.

First off, what is video gating? Video Gating is restricting video playback with the requirement of some sort of user action. A couple examples of video gating are: in-video email or custom forms, interactive quizzes or exams, buttons, and subscription walls. There are many other different custom annotation types that would also classify and work as video gates, but we will stick with the basics for this post.

Pre-Roll Video Gating

pre-roll-email-capture

Example: Wistia

The most common type of pre-roll gating in the marketing world is email capture or custom form. There are a number of solutions that handle this basic lead generation functionality really well, but knowing what you want besides the capture is also important. For example, you may be using the marketing automation platform Pardot and need to pass not only the new contact information, but also the video engagement analytics directly to that software. In that case you need to find a solution that works well with Pardot.

I almost never recommend pre-roll gating on videos unless the video is sitting on a landing page positioned to replace a standard form. The result of this strategy is most definitely a lower conversion rate, but the quality of the lead will also be a lot lower. There will be a percentage of contacts that convert because they are “curious about what is behind the door” — and these contacts are not qualified.

Mid-Roll Video Gating

Mid-roll gating is my favorite type of video gating because the conversion rates are really high and the quality of lead is the best out of the three types. This type of gating is very similar to placing commercials throughout your favorite television episode, once the viewer gets hooked on the content they are more likely to complete a form to continue watching. So placing a contact form mid-way through a video, just before the piece of meaty content is revealed is an excellent strategy and one that produces high quality leads.

Post-Roll Form

mid-rollHaving a contact or email form at the end of your video is extremely important. Think about it, the modern marketer’s goal is that with each piece of content whether it be a blog post, case study download, or email — there needs to be a strong call to action. So why would video be excluded from that? Using video marketing software, place CTAs at the end of all your videos, so if the viewer reaches the end of the content and convert, they are more than a qualified sales lead.

To learn more about video marketing software solutions that have video gating capabilities, visit our software directory. If you looking to implement a lead gating strategy, contact our video strategy services team to learn more about how we can help make your campaigns a success.

Matt is an expert video content marketer with over 20 years of sales and marketing experience. Matt has produced and deployed thousands of videos and is the ultimate curator of online video software. Matt is the Founder and Chief Editor here at 50Wheel.

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